State government mulling ways to retain interest of students in Bengali lang

MP | 23 Aug 2023 | Kolkata: The state Education department is figuring out ways to retain the interest of students in the Bengali language at a time when the shift to English medium schools is apparent. 

During the question answer session at the state Assembly on Tuesday, the state’s education minister, Bratya Basu said: “The loss of interest among students for Bengali language (mother tongue) is worrisome. 

We are trying our best for orientation of mother tongue in government and government-aided institutions but an affinity with English education is apparent in the society. We are trying to adopt measures to check this tendency of shifting to English medium schools from Bengali medium.” 

BJP legislator Sankar Ghosh pointed out that post-Covid, it was noticed that a section of students is finding it difficult to read their mother-tongue. Basu said that sentence construction and spelling in Bengali has been a cause of concern. 

He added that his department is open to suggestions from experts and the society at large for addressing this issue. 

“We circulated booklets among students once they returned to school post-Covid. This acted as a bridge course material so that the learning gap that emerged because of their inability to go to school could be plugged. We also uploaded e-learning videos for similar purposes in our Bangla Shiksha portal,” Basu said, adding that such a practice is continuing. 

The minister added that the state government has already initiated the process of rationalisation of teachers in schools across the state to ensure parity among the number of teachers and students in the educational institutions across the state. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/state-government-mulling-ways-to-retain-interest-of-students-in-bengali-lang-530220